This past Friday the governing Board of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) approved two additional discovery research projects as part of the $5 million in emergency funding for COVID-19 related projects.  This brings the number of COVID-19 projects CIRM is supporting to 15, including three clinical trials. The Board awarded $249,999 to Dr. Evan Snyder at … Continue reading CIRM Board Approves Two Discovery Research Projects for COVID-19

Sometimes it’s the smallest things that make the biggest difference. In the case of a clinical trial that CIRM is funding, all it takes to be part of it is four teaspoons of blood. The clinical trial is being run by Dr. John Zaia and his team at the City of Hope in Duarte, near … Continue reading Four teaspoons could save a life

There is still a lot that we don’t understand about SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19), the new coronavirus that has caused a worldwide pandemic. Some patients that contract the virus experiences heart problems, but the reasons are not entirely clear. Pre-existing heart conditions or inflammation and oxygen deprivation that result from COVID-19 have all been implicated but more … Continue reading Stem cells used to look at how COVID-19 attacks heart muscle

In the addition to the innovative scientists and clinicians who conceive and develop novel experimental therapies, it takes a village to drive a promising experimental therapy through phases of clinical trials, regulatory marketing approval, and commercialization before it becomes broadly accessible to patients with unmet medical needs. In this case, the village is the broader … Continue reading CIRM Highlights Industrial Alliance Program (IAP)

There are some people who, when you think of them, always bring a smile to your face. Dr. Bert Lubin was one of those people. Sadly, we lost Bert to brain cancer two days ago. But the impact he had, not just as an advocate for stem cell research but as a pioneer in sickle … Continue reading Saying farewell to an old friend

Now that we have 64 clinical trials that we have funded (plus a few dozen more where we supported the early stage research) it’s sometimes hard to remember the details of each trial. But there is one you never forget. The very first clinical trial you funded. And we just got some encouraging news about … Continue reading You never forget your first

Today the governing Board of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) awarded $750,000 to Dr. Xiaokui Zhang at Celularity to conduct a clinical trial for the treatment of COVID-19.  This brings the total number of CIRM clinical trials to 64, including three targeting the coronavirus. This trial will use blood stem cells obtained from … Continue reading CIRM Board Approves Third Clinical Trial for COVID-19

In late March the CIRM Board approved $5 million in emergency funding for COVID-19 research. The idea was to support great ideas from California’s researchers, some of which had already been tested for different conditions, and see if they could help in finding treatments or a vaccine for the coronavirus. Less than a month later … Continue reading A ready-made approach to tackling COVID-19

If that headline seems familiar it should. It came from an article in MIT Technology Review back in 2009. There have been many other headlines since then, all on the same subject, and yet here we are, in 2020, and still no cure for HIV/AIDS. So what’s the problem, what’s holding us back? First, the … Continue reading Scientists Engineer Stem Cells to Fight HIV